Chapter 1811： Encountered pirates

Today is Christmas. Sports leagues led by the NBA have launched Christmas battles to win the eye.

This year's Christmas War did not have a strong flavor of confrontation. This is also because Xiao Hua deliberately reduced the conflicts between the teams after taking office, and created a rhythm of family members, which also made the Christmas War lose the intensity of previous years.

The current Christmas game seems to be more like a show. The players are also mainly performing entertainment, supplemented by winning or losing, and happily returning home for the holidays is what they want to do most in their minds.

The Brooklyn Nets, who are scheduled to debut in the third game, sit at home to meet the Celtics' challenge. The two rivals in the northeast will present a Christmas dinner to the audience at the Barclays Center.

As the team owner, Yang Cheng was originally going to sit on the sidelines and cheer for the team, but after arriving on the court, Conrad called to the office and did not show up until the end of the game. Naturally, the reason was an accident on the oil company. .

"What's the situation?" Yang Cheng couldn't help asking when seeing Conrad crying.

"One of our Suez tankers was surrounded by pirates in the Gulf of Guinea~"

"What?" Yang Cheng asked in surprise.

"Gulf of Guinea? How could our oil tanker get there? Owowo oil field started to produce oil?"

"It started a long time ago~ but now it's trial mining. This first oil tanker to be shipped to the Netherlands has a load of 160,000 tons and carries 1.8 million barrels of crude oil. By the way, we rented this tanker."

Yang Cheng sounds big at the first glance. According to the current Brent oil price, 1.8 million barrels is equivalent to more than 100 million U.S. dollars. Now the over 100 million U.S. dollar maritime vault has been targeted by the pirate desperadoes. Who listened Are big.

Even if the boat does not belong to them, it is money for every day floating at sea. The rent is not calculated, and there are operating costs. The crew needs money to eat and drink on the boat. It is conservatively estimated that it will cost more than 8,000 US dollars a day. Even if it is calculated at 10,000 US dollars a day, this ship floated at sea for an extra day, which is close to 20,000 US dollars.

Although it is nothing compared to the crude oil worth more than 100 million, the question is who does the more than 100 million refer to now?

"The pirate has sent an extortion email asking us to pay $20 million in cash."

When Yang Cheng heard it, he exploded directly, "Fuck, I would rather rent a warship for 20 million to destroy them all~"

Conrad smiled bitterly, "Don't talk about these unrealistic things, talk about what to do now~"

"Has the oil on this tanker found a buyer?"

"Not yet, this is the crude oil we are going to transport to the Dutch oil depot. Now I am really eager to have a buyer, at least someone will help us share the pressure."

Speaking of this, Conrad couldn't help but drew out a cigar and started smoking, no way, anxiety!

"How is the situation on board?"

"When I received the news, the pirates merely surrounded the tanker and did not attack, but they sent us a notice. Before 12 o'clock this evening, if there is no payment, they are not responsible for the safety of the crew~"

Yang Cheng slapped the table and cursed fiercely, "West (T) Red (M) Persimmon (D)~"

Conrad got caught, what the hell? What does it have to do with tomatoes?

Since the 15th century, the Gulf of Guinea has become an important base for European colonists to plunder gold and ivory and trade slaves.

Since the 1970s, the proven oil reserves here have exceeded 80 billion barrels, accounting for more than 10% of the global share. Among them, Nigeria has about 36 billion barrels and is the largest oil producer in Africa. Foreign oil companies such as Shell, Total, Eni, and Chevron all have a large amount of interest here.

In this huge arc of coast, piracy, oil theft, illegal fishing and drug smuggling are rampant. According to statistics, nearly 50 crew members were kidnapped and held in just one month. 73% of kidnappings worldwide occurred in the Gulf of Guinea. 92% of hijackings occurred at sea.

In fact, since the Nigerian election in 2011, the issue of piracy here has become the focus of global concern.

The countries along the Gulf of Guinea are politically turbulent all year round, with frequent civil wars and tribal conflicts. Countries have no time to take care of coastal affairs. In addition, the unemployment rate of young people and widespread poverty are also one of the important factors contributing to the piracy problem.

As one of the largest economies in Africa, Nigeria has a population of close to 200 million, a single economic structure, and prominent social problems. Many Nigerians have engaged in self-produced and self-grabbing businesses. Young people work in oil fields during the day and at night after tankers go to sea. Covering his face and becoming a pirate, he personally robbed the crude oil he mined. The change of identity was natural without delay.

It can be said that to some extent, the pirates in the Gulf of Guinea are more ruthless than those in Somalia.

Yang Cheng ignored Conrad's confusion, and asked, "Is the straggler or an organized gang sending us the email?"

"It's an organization known as the Avengers Triangle~"

Yang Cheng heard the name familiar. He walked around the desk and operated it on Conrad's computer. After a while, he found relevant news.

Sure enough, he had heard of this name. Just in the middle of this year, an armed organization that had just been established in Nigeria announced that it was seeking a better redistribution of oil revenues and destroyed oil wells and pipelines in the Niger Delta. Other facilities have caused the region’s oil production this year to fall to a 30-year record low.

Unexpectedly, in less than half a year, the organization made a comeback. This time it directly pointed the gun at the oil tankers at sea. These mobile treasuries that transport oil to the world every day are their biggest goal, and sabotage has never been the main goal. , Making money is real.

More fragmented pirate kidnappings are often part of the criminal activities of these large armed groups. An important reason why pirates are engaged in this business is that they are forced to make a living. As long as someone pays, the unemployed and angry young people at the grassroots level will not hesitate. Join in, so it is enough to do damage once or twice to show your sense of existence. Use the accumulated fame to play blackmail, not only to make money and improve your life, but also to be safe. Why not do it?

But they also really pick the time, don't you know that today is Christmas? Are you all on vacation? Do you dare to wait for work?

It's really wrong to say that they don't choose the time. These pirates are very smart. They didn't see them so active when the oil was not as good as water in the first half of this year.

In fact, just a few months ago, a gallon of crude oil was much cheaper than the same amount of mineral water!

At present, despite the ups and downs of several months, the oil market has begun to rebound, and it has risen nearly 100% from the previous oil price. It is no wonder that this group of pirates has also become active. You must know that the crude oil price plummeted six months ago. The global oil producers have suffered huge losses, and even the pirates have begun to lack interest in looting tankers, because they not only lose money but also lose money after a robbery, who can bear this?

This is true. Don’t think that pirates are stupid. This group of people will also look at the market. Since last year, the market has not been very good. Therefore, the maritime attack on oil carriers in the Gulf of Guinea has decreased by more than 50% compared with 2014. And at this time, the adventurers who have to come out are basically small fish and shrimps, which will not cause much harm to the tanker.

A few years ago, when oil prices were above US$100 per barrel, it was profitable for pirates to rob tankers.

But with crude oil falling below US$30 per barrel, it is better to go to the supermarket to rob mineral water, at least on land than at sea.

It is not just the pirates in the Gulf of Guinea. When the oil price is low, the pirates in the entire ocean are not interested in oil tankers. Therefore, at that time, there will be a rare occasion of the oil tanker "air running and circle" on the sea!

At that time, it was useless for tankers to pursue efficiency. No one bought them. They would rather waste 20 days circumventing Africa to find even one buyer for all the hard work!

Especially in areas with excess crude oil production, such as the United States. In the first half of this year, a large amount of crude oil had to be stored in oil depots or tankers in the Port of Galveston, Texas. The crude oil storage capacity of the United States is close to saturation. No saturation, but almost less.

In order to find suitable storage sites and few buyers, many energy companies have adopted a strategy to allow oil tankers that have already set off to take longer routes, so that they can have more time to find buyers or Finding on-shore storage facilities will also allow these crude oils to receive a better delivery price in return for future delivery.

But now that the oil market is picking up, oil tankers don’t need to run empty anymore. They are filled with oil and can’t wait to fly their wings to their destinations. The rental price of tankers is also a daily price, becoming more expensive day by day, but energy companies don’t care, as long as the oil produced is someone Buy, they can make money!

But the problem now is that the oil market is picking up, and the pirates have come alive just like tm. They frequently appear in the fortresses on the sea road to carry out a new round of robbery against oil tankers, which is too cheap~

In fact, for these energy companies, they have their own internal plan to deal with pirates But the plan is one thing, and the actual situation is another. The pirates cannot follow the script you planned. When you come to act, accidents can happen at any time, so regardless of how adequate the plan is, if you really encounter a pirate, it will be in vain~

Yang Cheng had no choice but to ask, "Have you contacted the **** formation?"

"Contacted, it's too late to rush over. If the pirates take hostages, there is no good way to **** the formation. Forcible invasion and rescue will still cause casualties~"

Conrad glanced at the time, "It's not a few hours since the time limit given by the pirates, what should I do?"

Yang Cheng rubbed his forehead. What else can I do with this kind of thing? Either expect the **** to give some strength to fight for fewer casualties, or accept the money, but 20 million US dollars is almost equivalent to the profit of this tanker. , How can it be given!

Thinking about it this way, it seems that human lives are even less valuable. After all, they are all dead. It doesn't cost 20 million to add a pension, maybe several million is enough!

No, no, this idea is too evil, too negative energy, not what a positive energy baby does~

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